Fort Mill Times editorial: Here’s what Christmas means to us
Christmas is here.
In the immortal words of Charlie Brown, what’s it all about, anyway?
Certainly not the ubiquitous advertising that seems to begin even before the World Series is played, or even all the pageantry and secular rituals, as comforting and enjoyable as those are for so many people.
The meaning of Christmas varies depending on who you ask. Even among Christians. Just like in other major faiths, including Judaism and Islam, Christianity has a number of sects and some Christians celebrate the holiday differently than others. Even the date that Christmas is celebrated varies, though in our country, Dec. 25 is recognized by the majority of Christians.
At the heart of it though, what most Christians ultimately celebrate is the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, later to become known as Jesus Christ, after he was assigned the title that means “The Messiah.” We say most Christians, because some, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, celebrate not the birth of Jesus, but his resurrection, with a “Memorial Service” around the time other Christians celebrate Easter. What they all agree on, however, is that Jesus of Nazareth was born to be the savior of mankind.
Two thousand years later, it seems mankind is in need of saving as much now as it was then. Strip away the veneer of time and it seems the core of mankind’s problems haven’t changed much: political and religious differences, greed, irrational fear and hatred still persist and divide people despite the widely accepted idea among most non-atheists that our Creator wants us all to love and respect and care for one another.
Throw a dart at any point of recorded time and you’re likely to hit troubles at least somewhere in the world. But let’s look at the world today for a moment. It’s difficult if not impossible to ignore the hatred and anxiety driven by political and religious extremists, but particularly those we agree – with good reason – to call terrorists. And in large part we’re referring to Muslim extremists committed to obscene acts of violence across the world.
Want a dose of irony? These terrorists say they want to rid the world of Christians, Jews, Buddhists and even other Muslims who don’t subscribe to their twisted ideology, but they refuse to acknowledge the common threads that connect Islam to Christianity and Judaism. All three can trace their monotheist lineage to Abraham. All three believe in the 10 Commandments – or at least a version of it – delivered to mankind by God through Moses. Yes, this is the barest of a CliffsNotes version of some history of religion, but you get the point.
So, what does Christmas mean? We prefer to look at the widely accepted idea that celebrating the birth of Jesus means celebrating hope. And unconditional love and forgiveness. That to follow his example of kindness and compassion toward all others, human and nonhumans alike, to respect the Earth and praise God will make the world a better place.
Merry Christmas.
This story was originally published December 21, 2015 at 10:29 AM with the headline "Fort Mill Times editorial: Here’s what Christmas means to us."